The Academy: Ashland

Before Lunch

            For lunch we all met in this huge empty clearing. Kelsey cooked. She said we couldn’t risk burning down the entire forest. Camron said she just wanted an excuse to cook. I sat on a log with Trip, Jackson, Cody, Taylor and Trip, talking about the outside and watching Kelsey cook.

            “Where’d you live on the outside?” Jackson asked.

            “Philadelphia,” I said.

            “Pennsylvania?” Cody asked.

            I nodded, “Yup.”

            “You never lived anywhere else?” Taylor asked.

            I shook my head, “Nah. I never had the chance to. What about you guys?”

            “I’m Canadian,” Jackson said. “From Ontario. Cody’s from Booklyn.”

            I raised an eyebrow, “New York?” I always wanted to go to New York, Sam used to tell us about it all the time.

            Cody nodded, “I’m from Boston,” Taylor said. “And Trip’s a little rich boy from California.”

            Trip glared, “I wasn’t rich.”

            “You lived in a mansion,” Jackson said. “You said everyone called it the Alexander’s Mansion.”

            “And you went to the best private boarding school in the country,” Cody said.

            I raised my eyebrows, “What about your parents? Don’t they look for you?”

            Everyone ducked their heads and Jackson said, “Most of our parents are dead-”

            Trip shrugged and mumbled, “Not mine.”

            “The Captain said the people that were supposed to be our guardians just… forgot about us,” Cody said. “Like they don’t even remember anything about us. He said our names are on the tip of their tongues and at the back of their minds, but they don’t remember us.”

            “How is that possible?” I asked.

            Taylor shrugged, “How is half of this stuff possible?” she asked as Seth came over with plates of food and started handing them out.